(upbeat music) - You talked about this serendipity of meeting people, locals, kind of immersing yourself in these experiences that you probably couldn't have pretended. Do you think there's a way, not necessarily to like cheat the system, but to kind of engineer that serendipity to kind of give it a greater chance of happening than you would if you maybe had a whole week with no agenda?

You know, maybe you just go sit at bars, talk to strangers, but what if you have a day and you really wanna try to make something local and interesting and magical happen, what would be your advice to someone trying to do that? - I mean, the first one I think is obvious to anyone who's traveled before, but it's put the phone away again.

Like, you know, I think, especially when you're traveling alone, I do it too. It's the best social crutch there is, right? If you're sitting alone and you feel nervous about it or you're bored or whatever else, you immediately pull out your phone, but that signals to everyone else that you're busy or you're closed off.

The amount of conversations that I've started from just sitting somewhere and just looking around, like people used to do when they had downtime, just kind of staring into space and making eye contact with someone, saying hello. You know, next thing you know, they say hello. How are you? Next thing you know, you're getting invited to grandma's house for dinner.

Like that has happened so many times. I think people are naturally curious, especially for solo travelers. They're curious why you're visiting their home, what you're up to while you're there, if you actually have the best recommendations or if you're going on some, you know, that's something that they'd consider the tourist path or whatever that you actually, they want to steer you somewhere else.

People are very passionate about where they're from. So tapping into that. I think going in also being like, I'm going to be just a little more extroverted than I normally am, goes a long way. And I'm not, I'm an extrovert in the sense that I do get energy from being around friends and family and being around people I love.

But I'm still like a nervous extrovert, if that makes sense. Like I still get like phone anxiety and like, you know, weird, weird nervousness around approaching strangers and all these other things. So it takes an effort for me to be like, I'm going to strike up a conversation with this, with these random people.

And just as one example, I remember I was in Munich, which is a city that if you ask people from Munich, they'll be the first to admit that it's like not an easy place to meet people. It's just part of the, I think, Bavarian culture and such. It's a little more insular.

It's a little more, yeah, a little more insular, a little more insidery. So I was having trouble, like I was there for work too, and I needed a story and I was having trouble meeting people. And I was hanging out at this bar, not looking at my phone. So I was more aware of my surroundings.

And I was like overhearing this conversation with a bunch of dudes standing next to me. And they were like talking about space and rockets and astrophysics and like all just like very fascinating stuff. And like, it took me a second to like work up the courage. But once I did, I literally just like poked my head in.

I was like, "Hey, do you mind if I join you?" And they were like, "Yeah, of course, come on in, whatever." And I brought them around or whatever. Next thing I know, I'm talking to these like five astrophysicists who were working on some like German space program in the woods of Munich, just like totally fascinating stuff.

We spend the whole rest of the evening together. We go to a show, we just like hang out, taking me to like all their favorite beer gardens. And all because I just took that plunge. And it was like a little weird. It's a little awkward to do that in any situation, at least for me it is.

But like, I took a deep breath and went in there and said, "Hello." And next thing you know, I had this really wonderful, pretty magical day in a city where it's hard to do that. It's hard to find that serendipity. So I think those would be my two biggest overarching tips around that is one, being open to it, opening yourself up to it.

And the first step towards that is literally being physically available. So stop staring at your phone, put the book down for a second, just be there, look around and see what happens. And then two, it's like, push yourself to just be a little more extroverted than you usually are.

And then actually, no, I'd add a third one too. And this goes back to mindset as well. And this has taken me a while to really master, if I can even call it that, but it's admitting your own ignorance and embracing it. I think a lot of the times, especially with well-traveled people, there's a tendency to be like, to make it competitive almost, right?

Be like, "Oh, I know this, and I've been there, "and I know my way around this, "and I've traveled, so I don't need help, "and I can find my way, "and I've read about this place that I'm traveling to, "so I don't need to know anymore." But people, you're never gonna know as much as someone who lives there, who has been born and raised there.

You're never gonna know as much. You could live there for 10, 20 years. You're still not gonna know as much as someone. I've lived in New York for a decade. I'm not a New Yorker. I'm never gonna know New York like a New Yorker. And admitting that leads to you asking the right questions.

It leads to the approach that you have when you're talking to people, the openness that you bring to new experiences and new culturals and things that might be unfamiliar to you. All of that first is gonna just come across so much more effectively if you first admit that you really don't know anything, and you're there to learn, and you're there to engage.

And I think just that mindset opens up a place in a big way, and it's very hard to do, especially the more traveled you are, 'cause you start being like, "Oh, I know my way around. "I know how to navigate this stuff." And so still for me, too, when I'm at a place that I've been to 100 times, I still try to approach it as like, there's still something to learn.

I still am not a local, I'll never be, so what can I learn from a local? And having that eagerness and that curiosity is gonna make you approach the right people and ask the right questions, and then the rest is serendipity.